Sgt. Ryan Cole, a 22-year veteran, and Officer Jack Thomson, a 25-year veteran who works as a crisis negotiator for the department, said they shot in self-defense in the March 13 death of Noel Russell, a 23-year-old from Napa.

The two officers, responding to the parking lot of the South Napa Market Place, at Soscol and Kansas avenues, said Russell was lunging at passersby, knife in hand.

When Russell lunged toward the officers, and ignored their orders to get on the ground, Cole and Thomson fired, police said. They were not wearing body cameras, police said.

Cole and Thomson were placed on paid administrative leave as the Napa County Sheriff’s Department investigated the officer-involved shooting.